Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon has said that the reduction in funding for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2027 "is a major concern for Ireland".

He was addressing members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture last evening (Wednesday, Thursday, January 21).

The proposed CAP allocation of approximately €294 billion at EU level is reduction of around 20% in nominal terms compared with the current CAP period, but is a much larger reduction once inflation is taken into account.

Minister Heydon said: "For Ireland, the indicative CAP allocation of €8.16 billion for 2028-2034 compares to €10.7 billion in the current programming period - a reduction of between 20% and 24%.

"It comes at a time when farmers are facing higher input costs, increased volatility, rising regulatory and environmental obligations, and growing expectations around food security and strategic resilience.

"It is not credible to expect farmers to do more while being supported with substantially less," the minister told the committee.

The European Commission has said that member states can supplement CAP funding from their wider National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPP) allocation.

The NRPP is a single integrated framework which moves away from the long-established two-pillar CAP structure.

"In Ireland’s case, our total NRPP general allocation is €11.4 billion, from which the €8.16 billion CAP allocation must be drawn," Minister Heydon explained.

"However, this wider funding envelope is subject to competing demands, mandatory spending targets and horizontal conditionality.

"In practice, relying on non-ring-fenced funding creates uncertainty and risk for farmers and rural communities. This is why Ireland continues to press for a robust, sufficient, clearly defined CAP funding envelope with strong safeguards."

Early access to CAP funds

Earlier this month, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, committed to a proposal to make a further €45 billion available in the first year (2028) of the EU's next long-term budget for farm payments.

It is understood that this is not new money but is funding reserved for the mid-term review of the NRPPs.

She said that to ensure additional resources are available as of 2028 for addressing the needs of farmers and rural communities, member states will have access, when submitting their NRPP plan, to up to two-thirds of the amount normally available for the mid-term review.

This represents about €45 billion that can be mobilised to support farmers.

Speaking about this proposal at the Joint agri committee yesterday, Minister Martin Heydon said: "While these proposals are welcome as a recognition of the pressures facing agriculture and rural areas, they do not remove the need for careful scrutiny.

"To be clear, these proposals do not, in themselves, offset the scale of the proposed reduction in ring-fenced CAP funding.

"On governance, Ireland has consistently argued that CAP-specific provisions should be clearly located within the CAP regulation itself, rather than dispersed across the NRPP regulation," Heydon added.

CAP policy

The agriculture minister also outlined Ireland's concerns regarding changes of policy within the CAP.

He cited the following changes:

Removal of entitlements;
Introduction of a per-hectare payment system;
Degressivity and capping of area-based income support at lower payment levels;
Consolidation of eco-schemes and agri-environment measures.

The minister stressed that the above elements raise important questions for Ireland, particularly given our farm structure and the role of productive family farms.

"Thresholds for degressivity are low by Irish standards and risk disproportionately affecting a relatively small number of highly productive farms that contribute significantly to output and food supply. These issues will require further analysis and negotiation," Minister Heydon said.

In relation to generational renewal, Minister Heydon said he shares the concerns of the agriculture committee regarding certain provisions.

"I share the committee’s concerns regarding certain provisions, particularly proposals linked to automatic age or pension-based exclusions from income support.

"Ireland’s position is that generational renewal must be supported through positive, well-designed incentives - including succession planning, land mobility and intergenerational cooperation - rather than blunt exclusions that risk unintended social and economic consequences.

Negotiations

The minister outlined to the agriculture committee the next steps in relation to the CAP neogtiations,

He said the CAP Consultative Committee will continue to meet on a bimonthly basis and he also intends shortly to open a public consultation on CAP post-2027.

"The commission’s proposals present very real challenges for Ireland. The shift to the NRPP framework, the reduction in ring-fenced funding, and the increased complexity around governance and conditionality all raise serious concerns," Heydon said.

"However, these proposals are the starting point of negotiations, not the final outcome.

"Ireland’s priorities are clear and closely aligned with those set out by this committee: a strong, common and adequately funded CAP; protection of farmer incomes and food production; meaningful support for generational renewal and rural communities; and a policy that is workable, proportionate and fair," the minister said.

EU presidency

Committee member, Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the minister if agriculture would be a priority once Ireland holds the EU presidency in the last six months of this year.

The minister responded: "It absolutely will. When you take Ireland's position... look... when you're the chair of any committee, as the chair here will know, you have to be an honest broker and you can't be just talking about yourself all of the time; you have to look at the broader things.

"The relationships I'm building now and have been across the AgriFish Council for the past year really matter.

"Will Ireland put a priority on this [agriculture]? As an overall government, absolutely. We are a net contributor per head of capita [to the EU budget], but the most money we get back for the exchequer in Ireland - 75% of the money we get back from the EU - is through the CAP so therefore this is really important to our overall economy that we do that."